lethargic_man | Reading

The last several days my foot has been extra painful and I have been very grumpy about it. It’s really unpleasant and I would like to stop being grumpy already. But I have been reading things while trying to rest my foot and distract myself so have some thoughts:

Ghost Circus written by Adrienne Kress art by Jade Zhang— MG graphic novel about, what else: a ghost circus. The story here didn’t really grab me, but I loved the art, especially of the circus performances. (content note: ghost kids, child in peril)

Lumberjanes, Vol. 15-20 by Shannon Watters, et al.— I have now read all of the main series of these! There’s still some extra stories and graphic novels to check out, but the main thing feels complete. Vol 19 where the campers decide to do one last thing before the end of camp was especially charming. The ending was a bit rushed but narratively satisfying. This whole series was very good and fun and I’m glad I came back to it and read the second half.

Gotham Academy Second Semester— The second Gotham Academy series. This one is all one long arc where the first one was more episodic. I didn’t like this quite as much as the first series, which I adored. Its a little bit darker and less fun. But I still love Maps and Olive and their friendship. I’m sad there aren’t more of these, but at least there are a few more stories where these characters show up for me to read. (Maps reminds me of very early Tim and I think it would be fun if they hung out, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.)

Batman, Vol. 6: Abyss by Joshua Williamson et al— I read this because it contains a story featuring Maps from Gotham Academy. That story was great! (Well except for the fact that some of the art of Japanese characters was bordering on racist caricature– that was not good at all!) The rest of it wasn’t bad– a little confusing because so much of it referenced other story lines and I have no idea what’s going on in comics this decade.

Kindred Dragons by Sarah Mensinga— A very sweet MG graphic novel about a girl who really wants a dragon egg. She lives in a world where fairies bring some girls dragon eggs – but it mostly runs in families and she isn’t from a “kindred” family. It’s set in Canada which confused me at first, but works for the vibe. The book says “volume 1” very prominently so I was a little worried that it would end on a cliffhanger but it's a complete story.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3215/

This replaces the previous solar activity watch, which was issued last month when the sun took off its sunglasses.

https://xkcd.com/3215/

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3214/

Now that I've finally gotten an electric vehicle, I'm never going back to an acoustic one.

https://xkcd.com/3214/

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3213/

I mean, half of these are undefined. And your multiplication dots are too low; they look like decimal points.

https://xkcd.com/3213/

forestofglory

I’ve gotten back into the habit of going to the library once a week on the same day (Monday) to return stuff and pick up my holds. (This is also the best way I’ve found to get myself to return my books on time now that the library got rid of late fees) I keep thinking “this week the stack of new things will be smaller” but it never is. Surely I’ll run out of graphic novels I want to read that the library has at some point? But I’m glad it's not yet.

In other news I have now read more books this year than I did all of last year, which is pretty wild! Like sure they are all short things but I’m just reading so much more than I was few months ago and it’s really nice.

Red Threads by Ila Nguyen-Hayama—A graphic novel about a 15 year old girl in Tokyo who is invited to attend a magical school. This was very cute and charming if a little heavy on the info dumping about Japanese folklore. I really liked the main character's friendship with another girl at school.

Lumberjanes, Vol. 8-14 by N.D. Stevenson and Shannon Watters, et al.— I’d read up through Vol 10 years ago, but now I’m at stuff I haven’t read before. Still very fun!

Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy by Chynna Clugston Flores et al. —A crossover between two very fun comics both featuring teams of teens who deal with supernatural mysteries – I enjoyed it a lot! I wish there was more time for cross team interactions but it would be hard to fit in and keep focus on the story

Animated Batman—It’s nice to be into media that my kid also is interested in. She doesn’t watch anything with subtitles, but she likes Batman. So I’ve watched a handful of episodes of the 90’s animated Batman with her. (I started from where she’s gotten to before so not at the beginning) In terms of Bat-fam its not doing a lot, most of the kids/sidekicks aren’t in this and those that are aren’t around much (though I’m told they show up more frequently latter on) However the show itself is very well crafted! I’m impressed with both the animation (the style! The attention to detail) and the storytelling

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3212/

After a lot of analysis, I've determined that they're actually big red dots; they're just very far away.

https://xkcd.com/3212/

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3211/

Oh, and do you have any tips on how to vacuum up copper that's melted into your carpet?

https://xkcd.com/3211/

balashon_feed

Posted by Balashon

http://www.balashon.com/2026/02/agartal.html

The word אֲגַרְטָל agartal, meaning "vase" in Modern Hebrew, doesn’t look like a native Hebrew word. But it actually has a biblical origin. It appears in only one verse, in a list of vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the Temple in Jerusalem and then returned by Cyrus:

וְאֵלֶּה מִסְפָּרָם אֲגַרְטְלֵי זָהָב שְׁלֹשִׁים אֲגַרְטְלֵי־כֶסֶף אָלֶף מַחֲלָפִים תִּשְׁעָה וְעֶשְׂרִים׃

"This is the inventory: 30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins, 29 knives" (Ezra 1:9)

The verse only has the plural construct אֲגַרְטְלֵי־, so the singular isn’t written there. Older sources sometimes vocalized it אֲגַרְטֵל (agartél), but Modern Hebrew uses אֲגַרְטָל (agartál).

Agartal certainly refers to a type of vessel or container, but exactly which one isn't clear. Translations suggest basin (as above), along with bowl, platter, and dish. The Septuagint translation into Greek renders agartal as ψυκτήρ (psyktḗr) - a wine cooler, or cooling vessel. Some rabbinic sources, such as Ibn Janach, suggest it was a handwashing vessel or jug.

The construct form also leads to some ambiguity. While generally the understanding is of containers made of gold and silver ("gold basins ... silver basins"), some conjecture that they were made for holding gold and silver, in which case they could be baskets or bags made of other materials.

That possibility aligns with one theory as to the etymology of agartal. Klein writes:

Of uncertain origin. Prob. related to Aram. קַרטַלָּא, Gk. kartallos (= basket).

Another suggestion for a Greek origin, found in this article, proposes that it comes from κρατήρ (kratḗr). The author argues this fits better with "gold basin", since a krater is a large mixing bowl, which would be made from valuable metals.

Other theories suggest a Persian origin, often framed as a type of bag or container, or a Hittite word which might have meant basket.

Outside Ezra, the word is rare, but it later became the Modern Hebrew word for the fancy word "vase."

Sources:

http://www.balashon.com/2026/02/agartal.html

liv

I want to talk about the education privilege meme that's been doing the rounds. On the one hand I love old-school memes that encourage lots of cool people on my d-roll to talk about their experiences growing up. But at the same time, I'm kind of frowning at this particular iteration.

( thinky thoughts )

Anyway, hopefully this is an adequate substitute for the meme and you don't need me to tell you in detail how absurdly precocious I was in reading and maths.